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04 Jan 2005, 16:06

I have spent about 3 hours looking through a lot of these posts (which is not a good thing considering the fact that I am at work) and am feeling a little worried about the amount of time I have to prepare.

I cannot say how long I have been preparing for the GMAT. I have been so afraid to take it that I kept postponing my test date. In the process of postponement I have gone weeks where I studied everyday, and weeks where I did not even pick up my textbooks. This went on for about a year after which I started studying consistently for the GMAT a month ago. I picked up my courage and finally scheduled my test date for Feb. 19th and now I fear that I might have been a little too courageous. I have alittle more than a month now and I want to know if that is sufficient considering my choppy preparation. So far I have taken the Kaplan diagnostic (710) and the Kaplan CAT 1(600<--I feel miserable about this) I still have all the PR tests and PP tests to do. I was thinking two tests a week until I get to the GMAT. Does anyone out there have anymore recommendations and/or similar prep. experience and took the GMAT to do well. I would appreciate your imput. Oh yeah and I want to get a 700+ score.

Oh and on a separate note every one mentions there being 4 CAT tests on the KAPLAN CD, I seem to be able to see only two. Am I missing something?

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I would suggest you take it on february 19th. reading others experiences is good, but remember, everyones background, everyone's prep style, learning ability are very different.

I think your story is my story. I kept postponing it too, but there were other personal reasons why i had to.

The best way to target this problem is to create a very good tracking system. Make a "lessons learned" folder and keep updating it every hour, every four hours ...etc.. Make neat notes and organize it neatly. Also keep a log of your errors and keep studying them very regularly.

I would also strongly recommend buying a recorder. If you dont have time to write notes , but there is something important you learnt, speak clearly into the recorder about what you have learnt. Revisit the tape ever so often to refresh.

These things will make sure that you have some sort of documentation of your learning process. This will ensure that whatever you have learned wont be forgotten easily.

About, getting a score of 700 , i have talked about the process you may need to follow in the other post..

but for a 700,

1. you need to have atleast a 48 on Quant
2. you need to have atleast a 38-39 on verbal

The absolute best way to get to that level is not to do the easy problems wrong. this will ensure that you get many hard problems on the test and getting most of them right will ensure that you get past 700.

Obviously, you need to have very good concepts. One of the ways i have found useful is to solve tough problems. This ensures that you are always trying to apply all that you know to that problem.

For doing all of this, you need to be consistent. If you can participate on the forum, it will be good practise for you and you may have more motivation to continue prepping everyday.

About Kaplan, i never had a 600 on their tests and mygmat score is 710. Your diagnostic score is very very good. In any case, do not rely on practise test scores for predicting your performance. your focus should be learning and minimizing mistakes. The only score that matters is the Real GMAT score.

Two tests a week is great practise. Remember , after every practise test, you only objective is to see if you repeated any mistakes , if you learnt anything new and if you like, did you follow the small checklist i gave you.
build in a feedback mechanism into your prep.

I hope my response is close to what you wanted. Please feel free to ask questions.

Praetorian

greenandwise wrote:

I have spent about 3 hours looking through a lot of these posts (which is not a good thing considering the fact that I am at work) and am feeling a little worried about the amount of time I have to prepare.

I cannot say how long I have been preparing for the GMAT. I have been so afraid to take it that I kept postponing my test date. In the process of postponement I have gone weeks where I studied everyday, and weeks where I did not even pick up my textbooks. This went on for about a year after which I started studying consistently for the GMAT a month ago. I picked up my courage and finally scheduled my test date for Feb. 19th and now I fear that I might have been a little too courageous. I have alittle more than a month now and I want to know if that is sufficient considering my choppy preparation. So far I have taken the Kaplan diagnostic (710) and the Kaplan CAT 1(600<--I feel miserable about this) I still have all the PR tests and PP tests to do. I was thinking two tests a week until I get to the GMAT. Does anyone out there have anymore recommendations and/or similar prep. experience and took the GMAT to do well. I would appreciate your imput. Oh yeah and I want to get a 700+ score.

Oh and on a separate note every one mentions there being 4 CAT tests on the KAPLAN CD, I seem to be able to see only two. Am I missing something?